Residential building permits are up

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau suggest the region’s residential construction industry might be in for improving times.

The census says area cities and towns issued building permits for 222 housing units in the first two months of the year. That’s up from 112 units in 2010, and 71 in 2009, when the recession really curbed construction.

The number of permits even surpasses the total from the first two months of 2007, when residential building was still booming.

Two months, however, is a very small sample size — so small that the approval of, say, a large apartment complex could swing the numbers.

In fact, the numbers suggest that apartments are leading the upswing, as the number of permits for single-family homes are actually down, from 110 last year to 61 this year. Data from the last five years is below.